Rockchalker
New Member
Thanks for the info. I think the auto braking slower her down, but the knucklehead pulled in front of her.
My Clarity rear ended
- Thread starter Dwight Roberts
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Rockchalker
New Member
Thanks for clarifying that - what’s the protocol on posting on multiple threads?
I got rear ended at a complete stop today. Luckily, there was no one in front of me. My car slid a full car's length. My neck and back hurts. I called my insurance, but will not hear back until tomorrow. Any recommendations and cost of repair?
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See a doctor immediately and keep close track of your symptoms and treatment. Your insurance will cover it initially if you have medical, and their insurance will cover it in the end if they are determined at fault (which is highly likely from the sounds of it).
I've been rear-ended three times now, once totalling the car. I don't even deal with my own insurance any more - I call their adjuster and have had little issue with them taking responsibility for everything. But if you go this route, you must keep very good records of who / what / when / how much, and pay attention to the deadlines for making claims in your state.
Can't say about the car, but it's a secondary matter to your health.
4sallypat
Active Member
100% agreed!
Same here - been rear ended many times - last one was a few months ago in my BMW.
My neck and back got tweaked and I am currently taking pills and getting weekly acupuncture to relieve pain so that I can go to work.
The other party admitted to the fault and they are 100% responsible but getting them to pay is another matter.
Repairs were $3,000 for bumper and safety bar replacement.
Make sure the other party's insurance pays for the rental car so that you don't have to deal with being reimbursed.
As for medical, as @oddhack said - keep a record of everything (meds, doctor visits, treatments, etc) because you will have the harder time trying to recoup for injury. Far easier to recoup for car damages but when it's your health or quality of daily life, you will need fight them.
Consult an attorney for their take on how much you should get from the medical portion.
One more thing. Don't sign anything until you are completely satisfied with the proposed settlement (they might deal with medical and car as two separate issues). Once you sign a settlement agreement, there's no further recourse. In my case they wanted me to sign the settlement and only then would they mail me a check; there was no way in hell that was happening, and I forced them to send someone out in person with the check and the legal papers.
There is little urgency with medical issues (in California the timeout for settling the claim is one year, IIRC - YMMV in your state), and some of them may not show up for quite a while after the accident. My case had them pushing back on some of the medical expenses, like weekly theraputic massage recommended by my chiropractor, but then offering 3x the allowed costs in the settlement, so that was OK.
Settling for the car will probably be considerably faster.
KentuckyKen
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear of your injury and glad you didn’t get hurt worse. Great and much appreciated advice above. I’ll just add...
grab that purple HOV lane pass off the dangling bumper before it’s lost or stolen! I bet it’s a hassle to replace.
Now I’m trying to get the terrible pictures out of my head.
grab that purple HOV lane pass off the dangling bumper before it’s lost or stolen! I bet it’s a hassle to replace.
Now I’m trying to get the terrible pictures out of my head.
EvenSteven21
Member
Your car is totaled. Get a lawyer for the injuries. Hope it's nothing serious and I hope the person who hit you has high coverage limits.
Really, totaled? I'm still waiting to hear back from them. The car is at the yard and they will be towing to a Honda Certified Shop. The car that hit me is definitely totaled— their front bumper, headlights are gone and hood is dented with both airbags deployed.
EvenSteven21
Member
I had half the damage as you and mine was $15k. If the structure around the battery is compromised then they will definitely total it. Then battery is in the forward part of the trunk.
That aside, it looks like there may be some frame warping - do you have any difficulty opening and closing the rear doors? That's probably what did for my Neon when it was totalled.
I'll disagree here, of course it could be "easier" not having to track things or get them to reimburse. But there are benefits to self-paying instead, especially if you have one of the few credit cards that includes Primary rental insurance.
I did so myself last year when my car was totalled (UI claim for a hit-and-run). I obtained a daily rate about 1/3 below what the insurance co's negotiated rates were and they gave me a hybrid for the Costco economy car rate because otherwise i was going to go to a different chain which had a standard size car for a lower amount. More importantly -- since I paid for the rental myself I was covered on my CSR credit card's CDW ($0 deductible, up to $75k in damages to the vehicle). Insurance co's won't pay for buying additional CDW/insurance from a rental outfit.
It came in handy when the windshield cracked overnight from temp changes. Painless to get the $350 from my credit card's benefits administrator. Additionally, if we're counting pennies, I also earned ~3k chase ultimate rewards points (worth ~$45 to me). I did have to float ~$200 charges because Enterprise took 2 months to get around to the repair and send the bill, but I submitted the documents immediately as received and Chase paid me within 10 days. Amica (my own insurance) was also quick to reimburse my rental charges and the check(s) were mailed the day after each receipt was uploaded.
Had I not been able to use my CC's CDW, I'd have either had to buy CDW from the rental agency from the start of the rental (~$450 at $15/day) or, as I wouldn't have done so -- I would have been out the $350 myself because it's not worth making a claim on my own insurance for $350.
There are additional benefits of getting the rental(s) yourself and being reimbursed, such as more accountability of the rental co and ability to pick which vehicle/rental co to rent from.
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I would agree that this a good point to consider for any car rental. If you get a rental and have Primary rental insurance coverage on the credit card used, you won't have to pay any additional for full coverage. Rental agencies charge about $30+ a day for this coverage. Most cards offer secondary CDW which as after your own auto insurance, and the ones with Primary are generally annual fee cards. I believe the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the lowest fee card with Primary CDW. I had been checking this out last year.
4sallypat
Active Member
Agree to disagree.
Agree that using a card that has primary coverage benefit is very important.
When I used the other party's insurance for the rental, they did ask for a credit card to secure any damages / expenses / tickets / tolls.
So I used my American Express Platinum card that has extended primary rental coverage in the event the car gets damaged.
By declining any optional / added insurance from the rental store and using the Amex Platinum, I got full coverage without any deductible.
At the end of the rental, I paid zero and got the peace of mind of full primary coverage from my Platinum card.
Had I not used the Platinum card, the insurance I currently have would be primary and the card company secondary.
Since there was no damage you avoided a loss situation. Unfortunately you did NOT conform to the terms for the Amex CDW.
https://www.americanexpress.com/con...and_30_Updates/CRLDI_Benefit-Guide_Tier-2.pdf
Relevant:
"To activate benefits – A. An Eligible Payment is made to reserve and pay for the Entire Rental of a Rental Vehicle to the Eligible Card."
And more explicitly in the pre-1/1/2020 terms:
"You use Your Account, American Express Membership Reward Points and/or American Express Pay with Points to hold or place a deposit at the time the rental is checked out and to pay for the Entire Rental from the Rental Company. Coverage will not be activated if You pay for any portion of the Rental Vehicle by some other means."
A third party reserving and paying does not satisfy the terms.
craze1cars
Well-Known Member
I handled auto insurance damage claims for a living. @4sallypat, you did not have any of the coverage you thought you did, for the exact reason @Bender states. I saw this play out at least 20 times throughout my career and is a common misunderstanding. The credit card must be used to make the actual full payment to the rental car company, in order for the credit card coverage to apply, otherwise they simply deny coverage, exactly because of the fine print Bender mentions. Then you get angry you missed the fine print, pay your auto insurance deductible because you declined the rental company damage waiver, and your own car insurance pays the remainder of claim.
Furthermore, regarding these damage waivers for $30/day or whatever. These are fully legit, but often very overpriced. What they do accomplish is preventing you from paying your own deductible, should any damage occur to the rental car. So whether your personal deductible is $0, or $100, or $500, or $1000, or $2,500...you are paying $30/day damage waiver to eliminate this expense. Whether this is a smart purchase depends on the length of your rental, and your deductible. Usually it's a poor deal and a very big profit center for the rental company.
When driving any rental car, with most auto insurance policies, the rental car is covered EXACTLY with the same coverage that your own personal car currently has. That's the easiest way to think about it, and for most people this is sufficient. But yes you are risking losing your own deductible in the event of an incident. Buying the rental company damage waiver simply reduces your deductible to zero. If you feel it is not worth it to pay the expensive waiver to reduce your deductible to zero, and you are willing to risk losing your deductible to the rental company, you should decline the damage waiver offered by the rental company by proving you already have your own insurance. And if you actually want your credit card offered insurance coverage to be activated, you MUST pay for the entire rental out of your own pocket, using that exact credit card. Using it for damage deposit only absolutely does NOT activate the credit card coverage. AND, MOST credit cards simply do NOT offer rental car coverage at all. Know your card.
@LLee5354, I agree there is a good chance your car might be totaled, but the photos are not clear enough to be certain, and you also might not know for certain for another week or two -- the shop is likely to need to do a disassembly of the car first, and an insurance company rep may need to come out and look at it disassembled to substantiate the full amount of damages. But indeed prepare yourself for possible total loss settlement. These cars have proven to be notoriously expensive to repair, and therefore often become totaled after an accident.
Furthermore, regarding these damage waivers for $30/day or whatever. These are fully legit, but often very overpriced. What they do accomplish is preventing you from paying your own deductible, should any damage occur to the rental car. So whether your personal deductible is $0, or $100, or $500, or $1000, or $2,500...you are paying $30/day damage waiver to eliminate this expense. Whether this is a smart purchase depends on the length of your rental, and your deductible. Usually it's a poor deal and a very big profit center for the rental company.
When driving any rental car, with most auto insurance policies, the rental car is covered EXACTLY with the same coverage that your own personal car currently has. That's the easiest way to think about it, and for most people this is sufficient. But yes you are risking losing your own deductible in the event of an incident. Buying the rental company damage waiver simply reduces your deductible to zero. If you feel it is not worth it to pay the expensive waiver to reduce your deductible to zero, and you are willing to risk losing your deductible to the rental company, you should decline the damage waiver offered by the rental company by proving you already have your own insurance. And if you actually want your credit card offered insurance coverage to be activated, you MUST pay for the entire rental out of your own pocket, using that exact credit card. Using it for damage deposit only absolutely does NOT activate the credit card coverage. AND, MOST credit cards simply do NOT offer rental car coverage at all. Know your card.
@LLee5354, I agree there is a good chance your car might be totaled, but the photos are not clear enough to be certain, and you also might not know for certain for another week or two -- the shop is likely to need to do a disassembly of the car first, and an insurance company rep may need to come out and look at it disassembled to substantiate the full amount of damages. But indeed prepare yourself for possible total loss settlement. These cars have proven to be notoriously expensive to repair, and therefore often become totaled after an accident.
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Rear doors closed fine. I went yesterday to the shop to pick up my personal belongings from the vehicle and tested it.
I took this picture when I picked up my things yesterday... I'm still waiting for an estimate...
With 800 miles on it, my wife hit our Clarity in the right rear and back end while it was parked in the garage. She mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake. Damage was $15,000+ and took 3-4 weeks for Honda dealer to get parts and repair it. They did good work and we’ve had no problems. One thing I learned from checking their progress with repairs is how well built the Clarity is.
Black cars are so beautiful when clean but my last black one was rear ended. Guy didnt see me.
Only white cars for me now. I feel visability is #1. In accordance with a study, white cars are 12 percent less likely to get into an accident than black cars are, regardless of the time of day.
Sorry for your loss and pain.
Only white cars for me now. I feel visability is #1. In accordance with a study, white cars are 12 percent less likely to get into an accident than black cars are, regardless of the time of day.
Sorry for your loss and pain.